A SHIP WITHOUT IRON.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 9540, 12 July 1909, Page 7

A SHIP WITHOUT IRON.

Scientific ship-building has its varieties. Amongst the new triumphs of conrcete rioted by a recent "Technical World" there appears a description of four "iron concrete boats,' - successfully launched for use in the Itaiian navy. This material, we are told, has a fine floating power; "the cost of maintaining such structures would 'be practically nothing, and their life unlimited." On the other hand, the most truly scientific vessel in existence has been constructed in all her parts almost without the use of iron or steel. She is the Carnegie, a brigantine-rigged yacht, built for the Carnegie Institution's great scheme of a worldwide magnetic survey. When magnetic charts are concerned, it is rather particularly important that ycy Yisse' fjhoi'.l'l not interfile with the oLafirVati'OiiS taken o*l board. Now the Carneige is so planned that she might meet Sinbad's mountain of lodestone without the slightest disturbance amongst her nails ur.d bolt?. _ Her planks and t'.:.»ns'nrc held toother with wooden tr.'c-iiitiJs and bolts and spikes of n< pper and bronze. Her engine and other machinery are of bronze and brass, and the very propeller is of Manganese bronze. The greatest puzzle in the building of her was the ! power question, for, though carrying 12,900 square feet of sail, she i has to have hsr strong engines, I too. Steam was not to be thought i out, because "the requisite plant | would be highly magnetic." Gasoline or oil was judged dangerous to I keep in store tor long voyages in out-of-the-way seat*. The final decision was to construct a marine gasprouducer capable of using coal, in connection with a bronzs internal combustion engine. A small amount of iron and steel was found inevitable, but between copper, brass, fire-brick, and Manganese bronze, even these engines arrived at completion with less than six hundred pounds representing all the weight of undesirable metal in the ship. Fresh water is carried in wooden tanks. The cooking ranges and ! saucepans in the galleys are of strictly non-magnetic type, while an ice-making and refrigerating plant is nobly planned in copper, bronze, and brass. On deck, of . course, the Carneige is equipped ; with every instrument of value to the watcher of the skies or the recorder of magnetic variation. The work done in the Pacific Ocean by the Galilee was somewhat hampered by a vessel less adequate tor such purposes. The Carnegie is now to take her place on her first voyage, with all conditions favourable for the scientific sea-lite before her, this month.